Heeoules mccoed



(No Model.)

H. McGORD.

BANJO.

No. 279,173. Patented June 12,1883.

fnven $01 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERCULES MOGORD, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

BANJO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 279,173, dated June 12, 1883,

Application filed September 25, 1882.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that-I, HERCULES MGOORD, of St. Louis, Missouri, have made a new and useful Improvement in Banjos, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a banjo having the improvement; Fig. 2, a side elevation of the banjoneck; Fig. 3, a cross-section taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 2 Fig. 4, a detail upon an enlarged scale, being a vertical section taken through the straining-hoop and parts immediately therewith connected, the hoop being as when first applied to the banjo; Fig. 5, a section similar to that of Fig. 4:, but taken through one of the notches in the hoop; and

Fig. 6, a detail upon an enlarged scale, being a view in perspective, showing a portion of the straining-hoop and one of the notches therein. A

The same letters denote the same parts.

The present invention relates partly to the straining-hoop and partly to the strings of the banjo.

Hitherto, as banjos have been finished for the trade, the upper edge of the straining-hoop is flush with the parchment. The consequence is that when the straining-hoop is subsequently moved to restretch the parchment the upper edge of the hoop is brought below the level of the parchment, exposing the parchment at its edge to wear. This difficulty is obviated in the present construction as follows:

A represents a banjo in which the present improvement is embodied. The straining-hoop B, when first applied to the banjo, is arranged substantially as shown in Figs. 1, 4, 5, the up per edge, b, of the hoop being so far above the parchment O that even after the parchment has been repeatedly stretched and the straining-hoop correspondingly lowered upon the banjo-head D the upper edge, b, is at least even with the parchment 5 but an ordinary (No model.)

straining-hoop, arranged as described, would interfere with the proper arrangement of the tail-piece E and the strings F. Accordingly the straining-hoop is notched at b to receive thetail-piece, and at b, where the strings pass over the hoop; The tail-piece and strings can then be in their customary places. The straining-hoop can be drawn down upon the banjohead by any of the usual appliances.

The strings F, saving the thumb-string F, are strung in the usual manner. In place, however, of attaching the thumb-string at its upper end to a screw held in the banjo-neck G, it is, at the point on the neck where the support ing-screw has'heretofore been attached, carried over a' suitable support, H, and thence downward into agroove or slit, 9, inthe neck, throughwhich groove or slit the string is carried to the head 9 of the neck, where the string is attached to an ordinary thumb-screw, g similar to those used in holding and stretching the other strings, F. The advantage of this mode of stringing the thumbstring is that the banjoneck G is free of projections, enabling the .operator to move his hand freely along the neck.

1. A banjo having a straining-hoop extended above the parchment, and notched, for the purpose described.

2. The combination, in a banjo, of the straining-hoop B, having the notches b b", the tailpiece E, and the strings F, substantially as de scribed.

3. The combination of the neck G, having the groove or slit 9, and the string F, substantially as described.

4.. A banjohaving'the thumb-string F, passing over a support, H, and thence carried to a tightening-screw, 9 at the head of the banjoneck.

HEROULES MOCORD.

WVitnesses:

O. D. MOODY,

CHARLES PIcKLEs. 

